Billionaire Musk to build new rocket site?

Elon Musk, the wealthy owner of rocket launch company SpaceX, is considering building a new satellite launch site in southern Texas, south of Corpus Christi, and almost on the Mexican Border.

The plans call for a launch site to be built near Brownsville in Cameron County (and specifically south of Port Isabel). Musk’s company has made a formal Federal Aviation Authority notification that’s required ahead of any planned work so that an environmental impact report can be made.

Cameron County faces east into the Gulf of Mexico, and thus any catastrophes would occur over water and not land.

SpaceX has various NASA contracts, and also forward commitments from satellite operators such as SES of Luxembourg to launch their satellites.

SpaceX is also reportedly considering other sites in Alaska, California, Florida and Virginia. The company itself is based in California. It already has a launch site at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Vandenburg Air Force Base, California.